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Film-ready location: The Oscar set at Union Station in Los Angeles
Photo: Chris Pizzello / AP
Alex Nanau must have imagined his first Academy Awards differently.
Corona tests instead of canapés, doctors instead of agents, no fans and only a handful of photographers - in a station concourse: nothing will be the same this time.
Nevertheless, the German-Romanian director, who can hope for two Academy Awards with his documentary "Collective", flew in specially from Budapest.
After all, these are not just the first nominations for him personally, but also for Romania in general.
"It's wonderful that they don't do that online," says Nanau.
"It's going to be an event where you can say in ten years, yes, I was there."
Nanau sits in the kitchen of an Airbnb in Century City, a neighborhood of Los Angeles that has grown around the old film studio 20th Century Pictures.
Because of the quarantine and test regulations for all participants, he had to arrive ten days before the Oscars.
His tuxedo pants, still unironed, hang over a backrest.
"It's safe because they treat it like a film set," says Nanau of the unprecedented circumstances of the gala on Monday night - but adds: "It was a long journey."
The double crisis of established Hollywood
A long stretch for him and his film, but also for all of Hollywood.
The pandemic brought the film industry to its knees.
In the meantime filming has started again, but under expensive conditions and mostly spartanly reduced.
The real costs of the last 13 months are still unpredictable.
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Arrived despite Corona: German-Romanian Oscar candidate Nanau
Photo: Andreea Alexandru / AP
The Oscars 2021 symbolize the double crisis of established Hollywood: Because of Corona, they take place two months late, in a hermetic »safety bubble« with only 170 participants - and they mostly honor films that were barely seen in cinemas or that were lost in streaming overkill.
At the same time, the trimmed show, in which more women and blacks are nominated in the top categories than ever before, should also signal the comeback of Hollywood.
It may even help that the pandemic forces a fresh start for the most important film award ceremony in the world, which has recently lost more and more relevance and viewers.
"Three-hour film with a few prizes"
For this new start, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has hired director Steven Soderbergh.
The Oscar winner ("Traffic") heads the Covid 19 task force of the Directors Guild of America and also knows the creative side of the topic: In 2011 he staged the virus thriller "Contagion".
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Monumental Oscar stage: the counter hall of Union Station
Photo: Chris Pizzello / dpa
Now, together with Stacey Sher and Jesse Collins, he conceived the Corona Oscars as a "three-hour film that also won a few prizes."
The more than a dozen presenters are advertised as "ensemble cast", led by megastars such as Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt and Renée Zellweger.
Instead of the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, which has a capacity of 3400, the ceremony will take place in Union Station, the train station built in 1939 in downtown Los Angeles.
Corona as the »storyline« of the Oscar script
Its counter hall with its monumental glass windows has often been used as a film set, for example for "Blade Runner" and "The Dark Knight Rises".
Workers have now transformed it into a 360-degree set, with stages, screens and tables at a distance, for a maximum of four guests each.
Two inner courtyards serve as an open-air location.
Only the songs are played from the Dolby Theater.
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In the middle of train operations: preparations for the Oscar show
Photo: ETIENNE LAURENT / EPA
The renowned immunologist Erin Bromage was hired as "Covid coordinator".
Corona shapes the look of the show and is also integrated into the script as its own »storyline«: The black film mogul and philanthropist Tyler Perry and the Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF), which takes care of Hollywood old stars, are due to their services during the pandemic -Monthly awarded a special price.
Rail traffic is to continue all around.
On Friday, thousands pushed their way through the corridors of the train station, past the screens of the Oscar show to suburban trains to San Bernardino or into the tunnels of the four subway lines.
From Budapest to the Oscar stage
Doing all of this under pandemic conditions, says Soderbergh, is like "building a house of cards on the deck of a speedboat."
Especially since none of the stars should participate via video.
For those who do not want to make the trip to the Oscar train station, 20 locations around the world have been rented as studios.
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"House of cards on a speedboat": Oscar director Soderbergh
Photo: Kevork Djansezian / REUTERS
Alex Nanau doesn't want to miss the fun on site. His film, which follows a deadly corruption scandal in the Romanian health care system, competes as a documentary and an international feature at the same time. "In Europe you always look down on the Oscars," he says. "But there is no other award in the world that pushes a film like that." So he flew to Los Angeles, accompanied by his co-nominated producer Bianca Oana and two colleagues. Each nominee is only allowed to bring one live guest.
Since Nanau has already had a corona vaccination, he did not have to be quarantined, but was encouraged to "low risk" behavior.
He passed the waiting time by hiking;
on Mulholland Drive and on Venice Beach.
The producers sent him a home test every day.
Shortly before the show there is another medical test in a pop-up laboratory.
But is all the effort worth it?
Will the show still be a flop for the audience - or actually a fanfare of the resurrection of Hollywood?
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Twilight or comeback?
The iconic Hollywood sign
Photo: APU GOMES / AFP
"I think this is going to be really great," says Kirk D'Amico.
The producer hopes the Oscar night will send a signal to the entire industry: "Instead of simply surviving the new reality, we will make it our own."
From his office, D'Amico looks out over the hills of Beverly Hills to the Pacific.
His life revolves around Hollywood: he produces, finances, buys and sells indies, his wife Zanne Devine is also a producer and member of the Oscar Academy.
There are movie posters on the wall, and in the corner there is a folding bike that he used to pedal his way through the corona crisis.
D'Amico still remembers how this crisis started for him - in February 2020 when he visited the Berlinale film market.
"That's when we heard about Covid-19 for the first time."
Around 400 Hollywood productions were stopped abruptly, and almost half of them were finally over.
Actors, extras and crews lost their jobs, but so did managers, stylists, caterers, florists and chauffeurs.
Hollywood orphaned to ghost town.
Most difficult feat in history
"It's been a horrible year," says Jean Prewitt, president of the Independent Film & Television Alliance, whose members received 54 Oscar nominations this year.
“But we're still there.” In order to restart filming, the unions, studios and producers finally agreed on meticulous corona rules, which are eleven pages long in Los Angeles alone.
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Not all survived: closed traditional cinema »Cinerama«
Photo: VALERIE MACON / AFP
The funeral of Hollywood was postponed again - for the time being.
After another forced break in winter, the industry recovered.
According to the local film authority, the number of productions rose by 45 percent from February to March - an "encouraging sign," says authority chief Paul Audley.
But only a fraction of the people are working again.
Movie chains are bankrupt.
The premieres of blockbusters, which are supposed to bring big money, are repeatedly postponed, be it "Mission: Impossible 7" or the new James Bond.
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Postponed endlessly: advertising for the new James Bond in London
Photo: Victoria Jones / dpa
And while the studios can absorb the risk, small, independent producers - who account for 70 percent of the US market - depend on insurance.
So far, however, they have refused to cover Corona, which inflates the costs of the films by at least ten percent.
"Hollywood is made up of survivors," says Jean Prewitt.
Especially since the demand for content has even increased.
But it is no longer being consumed in cinemas, but via streaming services.
"It's going to be better than before," says producer O'Shea.
"But it will no longer be traditional Hollywood." The change is now also evident at the Oscars: Netflix received 36 nominations this year.
Alex Nanaus wants to enjoy the show and then go out to eat with his team.
This time, afterparties only take place virtually: »Nobody wants to risk it turning into a superspreader event after all.«